Our family road trip started in Las Vegas and had already taken us to the Grand Canyon. The next stop was Four Corners, where we got our obligatory family photo with all 4 of us standing in a different state, and then Maggie and I got back in line to get a picture of her doing yoga in 4 states at once.

Most of my May wasn’t too terribly interesting, as I continued living and working in the suburbs of Jakarta. Highlights from the first part of the month included watching Deadpool 2 and Solo, visiting a few new malls, and eating some good vegan food.

When I stopped in Alabama earlier this year and agreed to shoot my brother’s senior pictures, I had a few locations in mind. There was a field behind their house, a park just down the road, and then a small village nearby.

My last visit to Hong Kong Disneyland in 2014 was so magical that I knew returning on this year’s visit would be a priority. I decided to spend 2 days at Disneyland and opted to do the cheapest option, which was to commute there by train from my cheap hostel in Kowloon.

Last summer, I had just enough time between when my education classes ended and my teaching year began to make a quick trip out of state. In addition to going on a sister trip to New Orleans, I also got to celebrate the birthday party of one of my other sisters!

Jane Goodall is one of my heroes, so when I found out that a documentary about her was being released, I knew I had to see it immediately. The only problem was that there wasn’t a showing scheduled in Orlando. Since I was overdue for my yearly trip to South Florida, I decided to plan a trip to Coral Gables so that I could see this.

Although I’d spent the past 3 years dreaming of going back to Hong Kong, I actually hadn’t set up any kind of itinerary for my trip back there this year. I suffered through jetlag for my first weekend there, and then I went to Disneyland on Monday and Tuesday. Beyond that, I hadn’t made any plans for myself.

However, on my way back to my hostel on Tuesday night, I formulated a plan to take myself on a date the following day because it was Valentine’s Day, and I wanted to treat myself and celebrate the success of my solo travels so far.

There is a lake in the corner of Indiana that is more special than all the other lakes combined. Not only is it the clearest lake, but it also holds 2 decades’ worth of some of my favorite memories. Most recently, I had a chance to make memories with my family during the 4th of July last year.